What do you think? Is college worth it? If you are curious about alternative ways, Skillshare is really awesome. Promise. Get two months free (first 500 people!): skl.sh/thomasbrush ► Learn how to become a full time game dev, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-how-to-make-six-figures ► Enroll in my 3D workshop, free!: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-15-minute-3D-game ► Make your game instantly beautiful with my free workbook: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-instant-beauty-color-workbook ► Get my 2D game kit, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-2D-game-kit ► Join my 2D character workshop, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-2d-character-art-workshop ► Wishlist Twisted Tower: store.steampowered.com/app/1575990/Twisted_Tower/ ► Learn how to make money as a KZfaqr: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-indie-game-income-workshop

I got a masters degree in music, now I'm a full-time programmer, because that's how that works.

"Don't just listen to what other people tell you to do" Do I listen to that?

I got a degree in game dev for about $80,000USD way back in 2010(UOIT, Canada) and the answer is basically, NO DON'T DO IT

It not a just piece of paper. It’s a $40,000 piece of paper. XD

Mate, can you share some light about building a portfolio in gaming area? Cheers!

Here is honestly the best advice I can give: Do not get a Game Design Degree. This degree has not developed enough to be standardized in todays society. If you want to be a game programmer, get a degree in Computer Science. Even if you do not pursue a career in game developing, Computer science will open up other doors for various careers.

Great thoughts man. Really glad to see you successful and happy!

This video literally came at the most perfect time for me, thank you!

This is highly inspiring and a really helpful video for not only game design enthusiasts but also people who's still unsure of what they want in their lives. I am really grateful you spent time in making all these videos and offering all these insights from your perspective and life experiences. Thank you so much!

Two equally true quotes, albeit ~25 years apart: "“You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.” -- Good Will Hunting "The last guy who got paid for having a degree in Game Design is the guy teaching your Game Design course." -- Razorfist

6:51 Why didn't you tell me this 13 years ago? I'm 32 and so frustrated that I wanted to make games but I let my dad shut me down about it. I should have just done it and made it work. I'm working on it now though. Hopefully I'll redeem all my wasted time.

Not gonn lie. My degree was worth it. Went for motion graphics and they taught me graphic design, motion graphics, animation, character creation, modeling, rigging, video editing and much more. Stuff I did not want to do, but glad I did. I learned motion graphics and so much more and now game development but did that on my own.

When I went to college, I noticed that many people were there to learn the skills that they could learn else where or on their own, but completely ignoring all the things that that the structure of college provides, such as working on work that isnt your passion project, and being reasonable and realistic about creating scopes, integrating into a team, using scrums and trello etc to keep a team stay on task and divid up the project into milestones and baby steps, most students seem to think if they can get really really good at one thing they'll get hired anywhere, but spend NONE of that time learning how to network, how to understand the dynamics of joining a team, those are the skills you are there to learn, not how to navigate unity, photoshop and a 3D software. I would say it is ESPECIALLY important for most people to eventually go to college because despite having good ideas, most people do not know how to organize their work, share it with peers, integrate into a team, nor does everyone have the skillset to build such a good brand on youtube and an email list or whatnot to build a community to integrate into. At the end of the day, all art, media and technology is about COMMUNICATING INFORMATION, and most people get way to caught up in being some sort of "unique artist" instead of learning how to create true dialogue between them, their team and their audience.

This video is so motivational, I think the same as you, i'm a few days before turning 22 and I think i've should have waited a little bit before rushing into the university (I finished high school and rushed into uni) and also all that you're saying in this video aplies for some aspects of my career and many others (i'm studing informatics) because I could've learned everything and more in few time, well at least having that paper in one more year will get me in touch with good enterprises even with game develpment ones as I am having right now.

I look forward to your videos. Very inspiring man. Keep at it!

I love how your life story is so much like my life story. Both passionate indie game dev, went to school then regretted it in the end, have a wife who is a nurse and have a baby girl ahah! It's crazy, but hey! Continue the good work, love your videos. Keep it up man!

Really appreciate the brutal honesty. I really want to do Game Development, but I also feel like I'm fighting alot of stuff that's out of my control right now too. Sorry if that sounds vague

I really appreciate you sharing this story... :D Also, digging the hair!

Good insights Thongus! You’re changing lives bro.

Huge respect for you bringing up the tech schools. It's a great way to start learning about different things you have an interest in without spending a shit ton of money. Most people don't have that kind of confidence of what they want to do with their life and it's a great way to experiment in a safe way

I went to UCSC for a B.S. in games. I come from a low-income family and had 0 EFC (expected family contribution). It cost me $32,000 for 5 years. It felt like a computer science degree with only like 4 classes where I had the opportunity to make games in a team. I definitely relate to Thomas's points. A lot of what I learned in my classes do not apply to my career I have now. My advice I'd like to give is to really research these game dev university programs, beyond just what they offer and what they cost. It's really eye opening to actually talk with the people already going through the program to hear what their experience is like too. I agree that going thru college for a games degree is not needed for a career in games, because everything one could possibly need to go into gamedev is readily available online for free. You just need the drive, perseverance, and resources to do it. But like Thomas said, I wasn't fully aware of what I was capable of at the time, and I was too immature to make myself learn what I needed to learn when I was 18-21 years old. Being at UCSC surrounded me with like-minded peers who just wanted to make games too, and that helped me find people to collaborate with together. It was a lot more effective than if I just went to meetups alone, because we went thru the same classes together and had camaraderie by proximity. For me personality, it was worth it, because I knew I didn't know anything about game dev when I changed from a Biology degree, and was better off than trying to figure things out on my own. What was most worthwhile was going to a tech bootcamp for mobile game development during the summer, because that gave me the hands on learning I needed to spark that passion in me and get me chasing after mobile game development with all my might. So like Thomas says, whether or not one should get a degree in game dev depends on the kind of person that person is.

Im 13 right now, Game Design Is Clearly My Passion(for now at least) i started working on my biggest project to date about a month ago, i hope i can prove to my parents and especially myself that i dont need a collage to pursue my dreams, thanks for an amazing video as usual Thomas!

As someone who is grinding through 150 hours of udemy courses to get official certs through the unity platform to ultimately produce my own content and even get a job in game development industry, this is very inspirational. I've been a manufacturing engineer in the automotive world for 6 years now without a degree (tech school ftw) and recently decided to actually try to work towards a career that I WANT to do. Thank you!

I got a degree in motion graphics and animation which led me to game dev. School definetely gave me the discipline to get it done. I wouldnt be where I am without it. There was a time when all this info online wasn't there so school was the option, but now there is a ton of content with the internet.

Hi Thomas. This is so very encouraging and motivational. Thanks for making this video😊

Am Really much grateful to your honest and bold confession that you did and explained like my elder brother did to me about the REALITY of getting the degrees, passing out from college and getting a kind of 'trust' that you are worth to be employed. You really put out some realistic and relatable points. A HIGHLY VALUABLE GUIDE< ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE WHO DON'T HAVE ANYONE TO GUIDE, LIKE AN ELDER BROTHER.

If only we could go back and explain life to our younger self.

Thank you for sharing your story!! It inspires me a lot on what I'm really want to do with my life. :)

Thanks man, I'm rly having a hard time deciding on my future and you helped a lot

Wow, small world! I just finished 11th grade so I have 1 more year left before College. My mom said I should go to Greenville Tech for 2 years then go to Clemson for the next 2 years. Because you recommended that people should go to a Tech School first, this has made me excited and hopeful for what's to come in the next few years.

It's not worth no 25 30k when you can learn all the same skills for free. For real no one is going to judge your game creation skills based off a degree, it's entirely based off your content you've developed, weather or not it's good content.

You have some beautiful artwork in your game.

I kind of feel you tbh, I did an illustration degree because they said I would be looking at graphic novels and game art within it..... it was more like children books and patterns :( Had no idea what I wanted to do in life. Went on to concept art... thankfully XD the best decision! Finally listened to what I felt I needed, I feel like i needed uni as I ended up meeting amazing people (not a social person). But I feel like I should have waited to go to uni to finally know what I wanted tho.

Agreed. I always dreamt to be a game dev since I was a kid with a C64. University in my home town wasn't exciting and I first wasted 2 years in the wrong one, then 7 doing Communication Studies, just to get the damn piece of paper. Then went to England for a Master in Computer Animation, still couldn't find a job in Italy, so I got another Master in Media Content Design in Florence. After that, I finally found a job in an advertisement company in Milan, but in spite of my winding path, those guys needed a Unity developer to make some interactive projects, so, thanks to my proactive attitude I started delivering content through a trial -> error -> success pattern. This year I dropped everything and found a job in Helsinki, one of the most lively environments for games development, and I've got the title of Senior Developer in a gaming company. What was my University? KZfaq & willpower.

Thank you so much thomas ! I wish i had saw this video before paying for college XD But you make me confident on what I was already thinking. And btw I'm doing a marathon of your videos, I'll catch up pretty soon ;)

OMG I love this video and hits home! I have gone through all of this!!!

thanks man, your advise it's really helpful! And thanks for the 2 free months, I'm going to use it a lot!

you are so inspiring, I love watching your videos they motivate me so much to pursue my passions of game dev!

I think it’s so interesting to see how different the educational route is in different countries. In Germany you can study “Game Development” or “Game Design” at almost no costs. I think the problem with this system is that the education maybe isn’t valued as much, and a lot of people drop off early.

Very well said. I'd say even if you do need a college after that year or two of staying home your decision about which college to go to will have a better foundation. In my case I figured out in my 3rd Semester what I really want to do as a Game Developer (3D Art/ Animation), but then were stuck with courses that either didn't suit my needs or came way to late. Still am to be honest. So in retrospective I maybe should have taken a Animation College instead of a Game Design one. To sum it up: Find out were you want to go before making such a crucial decision.

Couldn't agree more. I did not attend uni on Statistics for my first year, and that year I learnt all the basics for game dev. I started making games later on , and for the next year I kept making games, while attendning uni for the second year. On my 2nd semester I landed my first job in the industry, just with my portfolio and knowledge. I still decided to attend a uni, but now I know what I want (which is not statistics :P) , and it is more clear to me what my goal is and why I will attend uni in the first place

Have you ever thought about doing pod casts? Like a weekly or biweekly thing with other indie devs, or just digging deeper into game design topics, the business that goes into it, etc?

You inspire me Everytime I see your videos. You really make me want to shoot for my goals.

Thomas, thanks i'm 14 and i've been developing a game for 4 years.... actually most of it was just school so about 6 months but at seperated times i loose motivation alot and lately thanks to your videos i've gotten my motivation back, and thanks to that i've been working on my game alot once i finish this i'm hopefully gonna send it to you and i hope you play it, thanks for the videos

THAT WAS AMAZING! THANK YOU

I currently am about to graduate with a degree in game design. After 5 years in college, 90% of what I know now about game development happened in the last 2 semesters. Its basically 4 years of filler and simple theoretical concepts of game design. I dont have a job yet, though i have started applying for jobs. Though most of the jobs I am competing for are also being competed for by CS majors. Though from previous experience, its who you know and where you are at the right time. Thats what gets you into the industry. You gotta know the right people, and be in the right place at the right time.

This turned into a life lesson, love it either way.

These are such inspiring and honest words.

thanks for the sharing big men!, btw i look younger but i am actually older than you!, still feel that my Game Dev Journey will receive my full attention soon! Best wishes! and keep it up!

Mine cost 120K dude- luckily I had my GI bill that payed for it, however I could never recommend ever spending that much on a "for Profit" school. School was very good in many aspects, as in the work environment and the deadlines. The core art fundamentals and the networking as well are benefits too. Other than that, the school will NOT prepare you to be ready for the industry. They only expose you to it and all the work must be done on your own accord. I pushed myself and did way more work than what was assigned and I'm fortunate to have been able to gain a lot from it and be able to get work. Most everything I learned was from on-line and pushing myself everyday.

I conceived a Bachelors of Science in Physics & Engineerimg, now I'm programming my own Indie. Doing lots of research. Thank you for your videos!

Thanks Thomas!

You are right man thank you for this video it really helped me a lot not only am I going for computer science Im kind of iffy on wether or not I should get my game degree but this video really helped me a lot

I am actually planning to take a game design degree starting now in September. I have been developing a game for the past year now. I feel like going to university will help me hone my skills as a designer. I also believe it will be a lot of fun. Besides nothing is really stoping me from developing games that I can sell during my education. I am in fact going to a highly rated game design school called Abertay University in Scotland. I am personally really excited since this will mean me moving to another country since I am from Norway. I feel like that alone will help me get a lot more independent. Altough I see your points. It is very expensive, but to me it is gonna be worth it.

8:03 get a Computer Science degree or from a technical institute. In the U.S. you’ll get a 300-500% increase in salary immediately and can make $100,000 per year within 7 years. At 18 years old, most kids aren’t able to launch a successful startup. But after graduating tech school or college, work for 2-3 years then at age 27 is perfect for starting a company.

Thank you very much! I have been searching this answer for a couple of months. I'm 19 Years old and every "normal " person says that I should to go to the school to learn a boring stuff for a boring but save job. You inspired me and helped me that I need to go my way.

At least u get a great background of programming and stuff .... am suffering here trying to learn C sharp all by myself xD honestly i think you dont need to regret anything, maybe if you went back in time and changed this certain "thing" you might not have been where you are now. Anyway luv ur vids man

Just yesterday I chose not to go to uni for a game dev course because, while I want to enter the industry at some point, I knew I had no intension to join once I was done with the course. Instead I was able to reach and agreement that I work on my own game, proper 9 - 5, until Christmas to see how it goes. Uni will always be waiting should I change my mind at a later date, but once I committed to it, it could easily be a waste of time and money. I'm glad that someone has taken the time to talk about their experiences in this field! 😊

What are your thoughts on the confidence aspect? Do you think college was important for you to gain confidence in getting out there and doing something on your own? If you hadn't taken the path you did and had to do it over knowing nothing you know now, would you achieve the same things without school...or would you have even tried?

You're saying things that mane my biases feel affirmed.

Thanks you bro, you helped me so much

To be honest this video helped alot. I'm still considering this since I have a game design degree but I'm switching to comp sci. I hope to transfer from community College where I'm going now to a university but If I do that it will take more time and money. It's nice to know I have more options open. I'm still not sure what I want but I calmed my self down watching this. Currently first semester sophomore so I have time and I'm not in debt. It's best to make that dessision now

4 years later and the skillshare link still works, very nice !

Ik this video came out 3yrs ago but this is still true, when in school they teach us useless skills we wont use but when it was the summer holidays i managed to learn more than i had in the 5 years of school.

You really changed my mind ... 😮 And I am gonna do it❤❤

You're inspiring, bro!

this is such a great video. I have been going to community college, and I can't find a major that is right for me. I started my sophomore year hoping to study graphic design/animation. I had to change my courses after the second week because the projects we were to be doing later in the semester were such nonsense and the teachers were so skillless and arrogant. Im thinking of creative writing as a major now, but I'm still not certain. Thank you for this video, definitely food for thought.

Great content as always! Please watch your pops on the audio , some harsh pops on the Ps . Still love your stuff tho!

bold yet amazing video !

Im 27 unemployed and Im looking at all my faiedl attempts to code a game (because I was stupid and tought I had to code everything myself and blently refused to use things like Unity). I lost so much time having half a 2D engine coded. And a bad one. Now I want to go in this adventure all again. But this time using all the tools I have and not being a code snob like I used to be. I feel a bit scared because I don't wanna waste my time like I did it in the past. Downloaded unity but I started a staring contest with the icon. Kinda lost lol I don't even know what advice im looking for or why im even writing this lol

I'm 17 years old and game development has been a hobby of mine for years now. I have formed a team with my friend, he does programming and I do art. And I'm going to apply to a game design school. I was born into a country with free education, and the quality of education here is nearly the best in the world. I'm also not very disciplined, which is why I want to get into a game design school, so I can have that slight pressure forcing me to work. Of course, the situation in the USA and many other countries is wildly different, so I'm very lucky to be in this position, and will use that luck to my advantage. Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts!

For the game art degree people (and yes I know this video is specifically on game design) the question as to whether or not you need a degree in game art is a bit tricky. Legally , no you don’t need a degree in game art, game art isn’t like nursing where you need to graduate from a nursing program and pass the nclex. I will say however that on LinkedIn whenever I see someone post about getting their first game artist job, when I click on their profile and I scroll down to the education section , nearly every time , 99% of the time their degree is in game art . There is no accounting degree or history degree then game artist job unless the history degree holder went back to school for game art. The background for these new game artist is almost always in game art, it as if hr is exclusively hiring from the graduates that went to school for game art. So we have to come to 2 conclusions: HR at x game studio does not bother to look at applicants that don’t have a degree in game art OR the people with a degree in game art tend to have better portfolios than the people with a a non game art degree and or no degree. So to the artist trying to break into the industry without the game art degree, I think the question you have to ask yourself is how confident am I in my portfolio when I am competing against people with a portfolio and they also have a degree in game art ?

I love the jazz music in the background❤

Good work!!!!

im entering college this fall and i'm majoring in game design and development because I really like video games and the design process behind them i'm not entirely sure if i want to do game design after college but i'm choosing to study it anyways because of a couple reasons: 1.) i really like the university im going to 2.) i have ADHD and i'm not sure i'd be able to keep myself motivated in normal computer science or music classes so by having my major focused on something i'm passionate about (video games) im making sure I don't lose that motivation and screw up my grades 3.) the game design program im going into has several tracks which include audio/soundtrack stuff and programming which is what i want to learn most 4.) (hopefully) the people i take classes with will have interests more similar to my own as opposed to a conventional music or computer science major where i might be surrounded by a lot of people who are into stuff like cybersecurity or classical string performance and i wouldn't be able to relate to their interests as much

I needed this insight on my mission into game development. I tried multiple things 5 years after high school before touching a college and nothing really stuck with my inspiration side of things "what made me happy in the long run".

My plan was just that, learn as much as I can and start my own company making video games, I have so many great ideas, but people don't believe in my dream, people don't trust that I can pull it off, so from all that pressure now I have 4 years to finish my engineering degree that I won't even use in the future since I was pressured into

I like your advice in not jumping into the degree right away. You can learn for much cheaper at community college. Plus take the general education and transfer those credits after that. Even more important than the degree, is your portfolio. Without a good portfolio you won't get hired.

He-Man thanks for the video that was really goodbiggest question that I have is I would love to get into that community of building games with also learning how to go into that graphic designing it itself

Thanks for sharing your experience. As you putted, for some jobs, like nurses, is indispensable, but for creative profession, is questionable the need to drown your self in debt. I think that, the path of others, may not be the path for you, so, find what better suit your needs and plans.

Thanks for this I was thinking about this and decided no!!! And just do short courses and KZfaq channel and like you said learn from a great community. Just started to learn game design and development exciting scared 😱 but up to learn new techniques 😊 By the way great content Thomas thank you 🙏🏽

Me: *gives papers & diploma to sign up for infromatic technologies college* KZfaq: *informs me about this video 3 weeks later* Me again: *anxiety slowly kicks in*

Exactly! When I went to my academy I already know how to use photoshop and how to model things in 3D. It was IT academy so basically for 2,5 year I just had to take everything what I like into the trash and learn a lot of things that was a little unnecessary for me. When I was graduated (a few months ago), I’m just like "ok, now what?" Unfortunately a lot of game dev company in Poland want people with 1-2 years commercial experience and I don’t have that because I was focused to end my academy :/ So now I’m searching for a job and in free time make my mobile game in unity.

It’s taking me almost three years to decide on whether I want to be focusing the majority of my time on either graphic design, coding, story telling, music, etc, etc , etc. Spending up to 40k in school would have been a tremendous risk for myself and family to figure that out. Instead Im learning from home and utilizing resources from all over the Internet.

College is a choice, I respect that. I still think I need to go to college for game development though. I love to learn new things , especially for art. I still need to work on my art skills and I think taking classes will help me improve my skills. The degree just looks good if your trying to work for a company. I still don't know if I want to make my own company or work for one. I'm 21 so I still have some time to make these choices in do time .

I am literally debating right now quitting my degree, I feel wasted, I wanna be a concept artist and the course has taught me nothing on the matter, I already had all the things they are teaching me from years before. One of the modules was literally copying from google to a word document and forgetting about it, we have to make a game with a class where 50% are 3D modellers and the other half doesn't even know what they want to be in the games industry. I am wasting £6k a year for all the least important things we need in this industry. This video came at the best possible time. Thank you.

Currently in a bachelors of Game Development (Programming) and so far I have learned sweet FA about programming games lol Thanks for 2 free months!

I subscribed for this precious gift that's all I can do ❤❤

I'm not a game developer, but I've made a few simple games. They don't even come close to your games of course, because they were made in a much shorter amount of time when I was much younger with less experience for school projects. I decided to become a web developer instead of a game developer because the game dev university was really far away and seemed really difficult. Also I know now that AAA game devs sometimes work 80-100 hours per week while I have problems working only 40 hours a week. My college was really easy compared to high school. No homework. I only got lessons on Thursday and got the rest of the week at college to do "homework". I didn't even finish most homework on time and spent most of my time playing Flash games on Kongregate at first and playing Minecraft later on. Yet I graduated by making a buggy insecure forum that wouldn't be acceptable anywhere. I don't think I learned any javascript now that I think of it. I might as well have read W3Schools myself without going to college. To be fair, I didn't pay any money for college. I got money from the government and they also paid for my college. It wasn't worth much money to begin with because the TEACHERS didn't even know web development and only on Thursday we could learn something new (although internet is always available) because they hired an external teacher once a week. I think I learned most things outside of college or improved my skills. Like JavaScript and Vue, which I didn't learn there. I would be angry if I paid tens of thousands of euros for that college. They did help me find a job though. That was the main advantage of that college. They need to find you a job or they don't get paid by the government. I was basically an unpaid intern for months and then worked for minimum wage until I got laid off because they literally had no work for me, even though I asked for something to do. Then I became lazy and I'm not doing anything productive at all anymore.

Sent this to a friend who thinks about going to a GameDevSchool. I hope this will help him make a good decision at the end. I myself will probably go to college to study mechatronics, because I don't really have the supplies to work myself to a professional robot-builder... yet... maybe, who knows?I don't (yet)

I did get a degree in business management, more specifically accounting. Working on a second AS in computer programming. I went about getting the degree the smart way, that would lead to the lease amount of debt. Went to community college first and then transferred into another college after that, which would gave me the most amount of scholar ship money.

Definitely not an anarchist.. you sound liberated! Enlightened! Thats awesome man!! You’re becoming one of my favorite youtubers! Im starting at the beginning of your journey right now. I’m a stay at home dad trying to find ways to continue being a stay at home dad to help raise our children. My wife is a CRNA. 😂 Anyways keep up the good work!!

I’m just about to go to College for a game design course so I watched you. And instead I took a google search course (taught by myself).

I am personally going to be using skillshare and KZfaq to learn what I need to learn to become a full time game developer and my own boss.

thank you

you are amazing man

That was inspiring video.. Thank you..

Few weeks later, I will be going on 12th grade and I would still even think if taking college full-on 4 years taking IT or CS would still going to be worth it to me. I am kind of more scared because of the pressure being given upon me from my parents. I won't even know now. But knowing that I still have 5 years left means I have a lot to learn, keeps me motivated. I just need to move.

Hey Thomas, could you perhaps make a tutorial on a Dialogue system? I've been trying to figure out the best way to make one and I just can´t seem to figure it out.